Where Does Steve Francis Stand Among The Rockets Greats?

The best Rockets Pg after

Calvin Murphy
Sam Cassell
Kenny Smith
Vernon Maxwell
Stevie Franchisee

 

As much as I liked him and as fun as he was to watch, if you were making an all-time Rockets team, you would have a tough job finding a place for him.

 

My friend we have a guy name Tracy McGrady. Who gets blamed for every little thing that goes wrong. Everything is his fault. There is so much pressure on him every year. I think more than Francis has ever faced.

 

It's hard to put someone among The Greats when he's only won 1 playoff game in his entire career.

 

You left out John Lucas.

 

Had one of the greatest Rockets rookie seasons...

 

What if Steve Francis never had Rudy T as a coach?
it seems his success was tied to Rudy's system.

 

I'd put drop Sam Cassell and Kenny Smith a couple of spots. If Francis had a Hakeem type player in his prime to make him better he would've probably gotten far into the playoffs just like they did.

 

Madmax is not a point guard.

Also excluded from the list were:
John Lucas (was a no.1 pick, and a great stabilizer on offense in the 80's)
Robert Reid

But as far as pure athletism, physical talent and heart, Francis is up there. If he only had the IQ, he could have been the best.

 

Francis, you can argue was not a point guard either.

Mad Max played PG when he left for the Sixers.. Not a great idea, but he did.

Also Mad Max led the Rockets in assists one season.

 

Hakeem didn't like the fact Francis didn't pass him the ball.

because we know what we know now.

Sam Cassell was by far the best player, in terms of career when you compare him Steve Francis.

Cassell had success with the Rockets and after the Rockets and with different coaches too.

Steve was the best when he was with the Rockets, Mobley and Rudy T.
Post Rockets, he's been terrible.

 

He's inbetween Ralph Sampson and Rodney McCray as far as high hopes on high draft picks that didn't live up to their billing. And Rodney and Ralph actually took us somewhere in the playoffs, so Francis is a distant 3rd to them.

 

Yes, he was very committed to the cause, he did everythign he could to win, and he wanted to win really badly.

In short, he had a lot of heart.

Without anything else, that doesn't put him on any list of "all time Rockets greats". You seem to be asking for "where does Steve stand among the Rockets in terms of most heart displayed in franchise history?" IF that''s the question, maybe you can figure something out and rank him in the top 5 or 10 or whatever.

But that's a weird list to make, and not one with anything quantifiable in any way..


So basically I think your thread title isn't what you're asking, so you're not gonna get many positive responses except for guys who have too much love for Steve's game..

 

yeah, rodney mccray took us somewhere, along with a young hakeem, and sampson, but that was rodney taking us somewhere. i wonder where rodney would take us with cato, and motay


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this is the worst anti francis argument. look, francis doesn't have enough tenure to be considered an all time rocket great, but let's stay away from the he didn't win argument. especially considering he carried those scrubs to above five hundred records

if you want to see how far he "carried" them, check the season he got migranes for how much they could carry themselves without him

 

i've never heard hakeem having a problem with francis, cassell yes, but hakeem realized that he was way past his prime the few moments he got to play with him

i can actually remember comments in that regard

 

Ralph suffered a major injury that was not taken care of correctly which lead to his decline.

Steve suffered from an unknown injury that causes him to dribble the shot clock out and turn the ball over many times.

 

Honestly, I think he did a pretty good job as a PG. Really that isn't his true position as mentioned above he had a loser team and did what he could to win.

The only reason he left Houston was for us to p/u TMac, and that hasn't worked out too much better.

What I always wonder when I see a great player is, When they retire do you think they'll do it as a Rocket or another team? With T I really don't know cause he really had his glory days with Orlando where he scored tons of points. And now he's with us and hasn't done much but lose in the 1st round.

But if Stevie does get his jersey retired I think it will be as a Rocket. That's a big if.

 

Cassell came of the bench and Steve Francis was a starter who played a ton of minutes, so the % of passes to Dream is worse with Steve since he plays more minutes.

Cassell's job was to create offense off the bench, that's what he was suppose to do. Dream wasn't mad at him when he hit that 3 on the Garden!

 

francis first year, hakeem 28 starts, 44 games total
francis's second year 58 games